AI Ethics And The Quest For Self-Awareness In AI
I’d bet that you believe you are.
The thing is, supposedly, few of us are especially self-aware. There is a range or degree of self-awareness and we all purportedly vary in how astutely self-aware we are. You might think you are fully self-aware and only be marginally so. You might be thinly self-aware and realize that’s your mental state.
Meanwhile, at the topmost part of the spectrum, you might believe you are fully self-aware and indeed are frankly about as self-aware as they come. Good for you.
Speaking of which, what good does it do to be exceedingly self-aware?
According to research published in the Harvard Business Review(HBR) by Tasha Eurich, you reportedly are able to make better decisions, you are more confident in your decisions, you are stronger in your communication capacities, and more effective overall (per article entitled “What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It).” The bonus factor is that those with strident self-awareness are said to be less inclined to cheat, steal, or lie. In that sense, there is a twofer of averting being a scoundrel or a crook, along with striving to be a better human being and embellish your fellow humankind.
All of this talk about self-awareness brings up a somewhat obvious question, namely, what does the phrase self-awareness actually denote. You can readily find tons of various definitions and interpretations about the complex and shall we say mushy construct entailing being self-aware. Some would simplify matters by suggesting that self-awareness consists of monitoring your own self, knowing what yourself is up to. You are keenly aware of your own thoughts and actions.
Presumably, when not being self-aware, a person would not realize what they are doing, nor why so, and also not be cognizant of what other people have to say about them. I’m sure you’ve met people that are like this.
Some people appear to walk this earth without a clue of what they themselves are doing, and nor do they have a semblance of what others are saying about them. I guess you could contend that they are like a heads-down charging bull in a delicate breakables boutique. We customarily tend to believe that the bull does not know what it is doing and remains oblivious to the viewpoints of others unless those others try to physically maneuver or corral the clueless creature.
It is said that self-awareness can be somewhat recursive.
Let me sketch an example to illustrate this recursion. You are in the midst of watching a quite absorbing cat video on your smartphone (everyone does this, it seems). Some people would have no other apparent thoughts other than the wonderous heartwarming antics of those darling cats. Meanwhile, anyone with a modicum of self-awareness, they are aware that they are watching a cat video. They might also be aware that others around them are noting that they are watching a cat video.
Notice that you can be self-aware and still be immersed in a shall we say a particular primary activity. The primary activity in this instance is watching the cat video. Secondarily, and simultaneously, you can carry the thought that you are in fact watching a cat video. You are also able to carry the thought that others are observing you as you are watching the altogether entertaining cat video. You don’t necessarily have to stop one activity, such as discontinue watching the cat video, in order to then separately contemplate that you are (or just were) watching a cat video. Those thoughts can seemingly occur in parallel with each other.
Sometimes, our self-awareness might though kick us out of or at least interrupt a primary mental activity. Perhaps, while thinking about your watching of the cat video, your mind partially zones out as it is overstretching to concentrate solely on the video itself. You opt to then rewind the video to revisit the portion that you kind of saw but that you were mentally distracted from fully comprehending.
